Album Notes

When I first moved to Portland in 2000, I fell in love with Elliot Smith and Corrina Repp. Both were making records that sounded like they were playing their songs directly to me, like I was sitting in their bedrooms with them. Portland at that time was swimming in this wave of lo-fi singer-songwriters whose demos and shows demanded your attention not with their volume or anger, but with their intimacy. That was something I very much wanted to be a part of.

So I began playing songs with two friends, David Gerritsen and Anna Fritz, and the three of us formed the band "Annavox". In 2001, we recorded a really lovely album called "All Day Breathing". At the same time, I began writing a group of new songs that would eventually become "Blue Period". How cool was I? I was in a band AND I was gonna record a solo album! This was truly momentous... This was the beginning of world domination through personal and sensitive home-made records... Little did I imagine that it would take over four years to record and even longer to reach you here.

"Blue Period" is a reference to Picasso, but not in any specific way. I don't know much about Picasso or the work which falls under the "blue period" heading. I just felt that all artists should have a blue period; A body of work that documented and represented who they were and what they were thinking and feeling at a specific time in their lives. That was the significance of it to me. I wanted to record songs that were about where I was at that moment.

Where was I? I was 24, in my first major relationship, holding down a full time job - doing all the things that in my early twenties seemed like they would never happen. I was turning a major corner in my life and many of these songs reflect a kind of melancholic shift from childhood to adulthood. Some of them celebrate the idea that love and commitment will take me on a new, deeper journey. Others long for the freedom of a life lived day-to-day, where things seemed simpler and beautiful people and places were always just passing through.

In the end, this album - hodge-podge as it is - did what I wanted it to. It got at the heart of that time in my life – that feeling of looking forward and back with equal longing. It reminds me of being that confused, overly-serious, and inspired 24 year old who was just trying to figure out what it all meant.

At its best, "Blue Period" also reminds me that a spiritual connection is what I am looking for out of life. It's why I chose to travel and make art in the first place. And there are moments of discovery and truth in some of these songs that feel like evidence I left on record for myself to hear later on, when I have trouble feeling connected to my purpose.

At its worst, it reminds me of how much I want to be a rock star and how - sadly - Madison Square Garden is probably not in the cards. But even this naïveté is welcome in my ears.

And truly, these songs weren't ever intended to play Madison Square Garden. They are meant to play for you, wherever you are; in your car driving cross-country, or in your bedroom staring thoughtfully at the ceiling. Wherever you are, they are meant to keep you company and inspire you to celebrate the beauty of whatever it is you're experiencing right now. Or at least I hope so. Enjoy!